What are the symptoms of mumps?
People with mumps may have a fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite and swelling of the glands under the ears and close to the jaw. People with very severe cases (complications) of mumps may have swelling of the testicles, breasts, or ovaries, meningitis (swelling of the membranes around the brain or spinal cord), encephalitis (swelling or inflammation of the brain), swelling or inflammation of the pancreas, miscarriages, or deafness. These complications are very rare. The brain/spinal cord infection only happens about 10% of the time, swollen testicles only happens in 20% – 30% of males who have reached puberty (it is even more rare that this could lead to fertility problems), swollen breasts only happens about 30% of the time, and swollen ovaries happens only in a very few cases. Back to the top.
The most common symptoms are fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness and loss of appetite followed by onset of parotitis (swollen and tender salivary glands under the ears-on one or both sides). Mumps can lead to hearing loss, aseptic meningitis (infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord) in about 10% of cases, painful, swollen testicles in 20% to 30% of males who have reached puberty (orchitis) but rarely does this lead to fertility problems, and painful swollen breasts in about 30% of women who have reached puberty (mastitis), and in a very few cases, inflammation of the ovaries.
Symptoms of mumps include a low-grade fever, headache, muscle aches, stiff neck, tiredness and loss of appetite followed by swelling and tenderness of one or more of the salivary glands, including the parotid gland. Approximately one-third of infected people do not have noticeable salivary gland swelling. Up to 50% of mumps infections are not specific to any symptoms and 15-20% of all cases present without any symptoms.
